DESCRIPTION

Succeeding in taking over the Earth realm, Shao Kahn takes all the human souls on Earth as his own. To stop the Outworld realm from totally merging with the Earth realm, a few Earth warriors were chosen to have their souls protected from Shao Kahn in order to defend the Earth realm in a new Mortal Kombat tournament. 14 digitized characters fight to overthrow Shao Kahn and his Centaur lieutenant Motaro.

TRIVIA

MK3 was the first Mortal Kombat game to have bi-level battlefields, which lets players uppercut their opponent to the level above them when fighting on certain levels.

MK3 was also the first Mortal Kombat arcade game that did not include Scorpion, and, according to series co-creator Ed Boon, the last.

MK3 also introduced the RUN button, accompanied by a RUN meter, allowing the character to run. This was primarily to address concern from fans who thought that the previous games gave too much of an advantage to the defending player.

MK3 introduced the Kombat Kodes, which were 6 digit codes entered at the VS screen in a 2-Player game to modify gameplay, fight hidden characters or display certain text messages.

MK3 also introduced the Ultimate Kombat Kode, which was a 10 digit code that could be entered after a game was over in single player mode. If the correct code was entered, Smoke would become a permanent playable character on the character select screen. The arcade owner, however, could reset this code by accessing the game's diagnostic menu by hitting a DIP switch within the MK3 cabinet.

MK3 introduced the chain combos, also known as dial-a-combos (many other fighting games at the time had similar combo systems). These supplement the existing juggle combo system, but critics contend that dial-a-combos are redundant and needlessly add to the learning curve of the game.

MK3 introduced the long-rumored Animality, where the character transforms into an animal in order to kill their opponent.

MK3 also introduced 'Mercy', allowing a beaten foe to recover a sliver of life and continue fighting. This was necessary to perform an Animality.

MK3 was the first game of the series to use distinct blood colors depending on the character; the human characters and Shao Kahn had traditional red blood, Sheeva, and Motaro had green blood, while the three robotic ninjas had black blood.

MK3 was the first game of the series to have a playable Shokan character; Sheeva possessed unique corpse spirits (skeletons, etc.) that other player characters shared.

MK3 was also the first Mortal Kombat arcade game to feature player-selectable difficulty; previous games' difficulty settings were set by the machine operator.

It was the first Mortal Kombat game to feature Sub-Zero unmasked.

The early names for the Graveyard and the Bell Tower stages were 'The Boonyard' and 'Tobias Tower', respectively, but criticism regarding the oversaturation of Boon's and Tobias' names in the game soon surfaced, resulting in both levels being quickly renamed with their generic descriptions.

Many of the new characters weren't officially named till late in the production of the game. During production, Sektor and Cyrax's names were Ketchup and Mustard (respectively), due to their coloration, while Sindel bore the odd moniker of Muchacha and The Bride. Kabal, meanwhile, was nicknamed Sandman possibly due to Kabal's inspiration coming from the Tusken Raiders of Star Wars fame. At some point, it has also been rumored that Sektor and Cyrax are, in fact, Scorpion and Reptile, who were forced to transplant their souls from their original physical bodies into mechanical substance and act like a supreme clade of Outworld robot warriors. When "Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3" came out, these proved to be false.

The Graveyard stage contains gravestones with the last names of MK3's entire design team: Ed Boon, John Tobias, Dan Forden, John Vogel, Tony Goskie, and Dave Michicich. For each round, four of these names will appear randomly on each of the four closest gravestones. Each gravestone also has each person's date of birth as well as the "alleged" date they died, which is April 1, 1995, the day the first version of MK3 was released in the arcades. A gravestone in the background can also be seen reading "Cage", making reference to Johnny Cage being deceased (at the time).

Originally, the character Kurtis Stryker was supposed to appear in MK1, but was scrapped early in the development process when beta tests revealed a player interest in a female character in the game, which led to Sonya replacing Stryker. In MK2, Kurtis Stryker almost made it to the final game, but finally had his name changed to... Jax. For MK3, a new Kurtis Stryker is created and is finally made part of a MK game.

The head that occasionally appears after an uppercut or combo and says 'Toasty' is the digitized head of Dan Forden who worked on the sound and music for the game.

Smoke's icon is a version of Sektor's icon.

Midway / Toasty Productions released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Musik: MK3 & MK4 Arcade Video Game Soundtrack) on January 1, 1997.

REV. 2.1 :
* Computer intelligence increased. Computer used to get caught by players who would jump "behind" the computer's character and preform a combo move.
* Damage on some combos lowered (Sub-Zero, Kabal).
* Smoke stays in memory after Ultimate Kombat Kode is entered (Smoke will be erased in earlier versions should the game reset to factory default settings).
* Cyrax's double fatality glitch removed.
* Fixed bug that would allow players to start a free game if they tapped on the start buttons while Kano and Kabal appeared on screen during the ending credits.
* Fixed bug that would sometimes place machines into Free Play mode after the Ultimate Kombo Kode was entered.
* Fixed bug with Kabal that would reset the game if a player held down high punch for 2 seconds then pressed towards and down and released high punch.
* "Maximum Credits" message is printed in a different position on screen. Previously "Maximum Credits" overlayed existing text on the screen. Now it is on the top of the screen which does not interfere with any other existing text.
* Fixed bug where Kabal would sometimes block in the air and walk in the air.

TIPS AND TRICKS

* Ultimate Kombat Kodes : The Ultimate Kombat Kodes appear at the single player game over screen. The following buttons control each box, from left to right : HP LP BL LK HK (1P side) HP LP BL LK HK (2P side). The numbers indicate how many times each button should be pressed to display the correct symbol in the box. A dash separates the 1P from the 2P entries :
Play as Smoke - 10902-22234

* Fatality - KABAL :
1a. (jump distance) Down(x2), Back, Forward, Block - Kabal plugs his respirator into his opponent. Their head inflates and they float off the screen where they explode.
1b. (REV 1.0) Back(x2), Forward, Down, Block.
2. Run, Block(x3), HK - Kabal removes his mask to reveal a hideous face and screams at his opponent. His opponent is so frightened that their soul jumps out of their body.

* Finish Him/Her - Friendship (don't use Block during the last round) :
SHANG TSUNG : (close) LK, Run(x2) Down - Tsung turns into the character from "Joust" and hops off.
SINDEL : Run(x5), Up - Sindel kicks a ball over her opponent and makes a 'Goal' sign. She then says, 'That was fun!'.
JAX : LK, Run(x2), LK - Jax takes out a jump rope and starts skipping.
KANO : LK, Run(x2), HK - Kano munches on some bubble gum and blows a large bubble, which eventually bursts all over his face.
LIU KANG : Down(x3), Run - A film screen pops up and Liu Kang makes a shadow puppet of a dragon.
SONYA BLADE : Back, Forward, Back, Down, Run - Sonya does 'Elbow Sex' with herself??
KURTIS STRYKER : LP, Run(x2), LP - Stryker blows a whistle and takes out a stop sign. The other kombatants run by and Stryker directs them to the other side.
SMOKE : Run(x3), HK - An enormous brass horn comes out of Smoke's chest, and he blares a note.
SUB-ZERO : (anywhere) LK, Run(x2), Up - Sub-Zero engulfs himself in a snowman.
CYRAX : Run(x3), Up - Cyrax does a little dancing.
SEKTOR : Run(x4), Down - A Ring-the-Bell game pops up and Sektor plays it.
NIGHTWOLF : Run(x3), Down - Nightwolf turns into Raiden. A "Mortal Kombat II" machine falls behind him. At the bottom of the screen are the words : "I have never seen a Kano transformation!", OR "No, but I know how to do a Raiden transformation!".
SHEEVA : Forward(x2), Down, Forward, HP (Hold joystick forward when pressing High Punch) - Sheeva holds a stick in each hand and balances a plate on each.
KUNG LAO : Run, LP, Run, LK - Kung Lao tosses his hat off screen. A dog chases after the hat. Kung Lao covers his eyes as there is a cry off screen, then sadly shakes his head.
KABAL : Run, LK, Run(x2), Up - Kabal roasts a marshmallow on his hook sword.